Tuesday, November 11, 2008

RIP Herb Score

Herb Score, the Cleveland Indians pitcher and former broadcaster whose promise on the mound was shattered by a line drive, died Tuesday. He was 75.

For two seasons in mid-1950s, Score was among the top pitchers in baseball, a left-handed fireballer who led the American League in strikeouts his first two years while winning 16 and 20 games with the Indians.

But in early 1957, a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Gil McDougald changed everything. It struck Score in the face and ended his season after only five games. He tried pitching again the following year, but lasted only 12 ineffective games. And though he hung on until 1962, the promising talent of his first two seasons appeared only in brief flashes.

After retirement, he remained in the game by working as Cleveland’s play-by-play broadcaster from 1964 - 1997.*

Goodbye, Herb.

*Updated: The original post indicated that Score worked as play-by-play announcer until this year. I discovered that he actually retired from p-b-p duties in 1997. I regret the error.

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About Me

David Martinez has worked as a news reporter, sports broadcaster, and advertising copywriter, but his biggest love has always been baseball. A member of the Society for American Baseball Research, he reads extensively on the sport and owns an expansive baseball library. Among the significant moments in his life, he counts the day he met statistics guru Bill James at a book signing.
David has appeared on dozens of radio stations around the country, from KNBR in San Francisco to KOA in Denver to KDKA in Pittsburgh, and beyond. He’s done book signings in San Jose, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.
A California native, he received his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley, and he now makes his home in San Jose.
Contact David at david@homerunweb.com